VIRTUAL: Virtual reality systems for perceived ergonomic quality testing of driving task and design

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 99.0680-1
• Projekttitel Englisch: VIRTUAL: Virtual reality systems for perceived ergonomic quality testing of driving task and design

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Virtual reality system; human body generation and animation

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: 1999-RD.11030

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.3.2 Sustainable mobility and intermodality

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Partner und Internationale Organisationen (Englisch)

Scuola superiore di studi universitari e di perfezionamento S. Anna (I), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), University of Regensburg (D), Fraunhofer - Institute für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation (D), Loughborought University (GB), Institute of Ergonomics, Darmstadt University(D), Fiat Research Centre (I).

Abstract (Englisch)

Here is the description of the work we did:· Virtual Object Database: Since last year, the object database has been extended for the requirements of the new scenarios of the Virtual project.· I/O Device Drivers: A module for connecting the Avatar Deformation module to the Motion Capture module (from our project partner Perco) has been developed. This module takes as input the angle values provided by Perco and maps these values on our H-Anim skeleton.· Avatar Real-Time Deformation and Visualisation Module:o The module for generating bodies of various measurements has been extended. In the current version, four measurements are used: length of the upper arms and lower arms, width of the shoulders and length of the neck. These measurements are taken on the subject before starting the simulation.o The module for animating the virtual human has also been improved. Three markers, two on each wrist and one on the head are used for tracking the movements of the subject. These marker positions are converted into skeleton joint angle by using the inverse kinematics approach. The main problem we found is that the position of the wrists of the virtual human reconstructed with the inverse kinematics is imprecise. This is due to the use of a reduced number of markers. The inverse kinematics algorithm cannot differentiate the movements of torso from the movements of the neck. In order to reduce this imprecision, a new skeleton has been created. It is composed of two roots that are located on each wrist. The use of two roots allows locating the wrists of the virtual human at the position of the wrists of the subject. In this way, the hands of the subject and the virtual human fit exactly. The imprecision is on the shoulders and no more on the wrists.o A procedure for calibrating the motion capture system has been defined. This procedure is used at the initialisation of the virtual system and aims to define the correspondence between the objects in the real mock-up and their models in the virtual environment. By using the marker positions, this stage computes a transformation matrix that will be used to compute the position of the head and the wrists in the virtual environment during simulation.· User Interface: A user interface has been developed. It is used for the set-up of the virtual environment: defining the virtual human, the scenario, and t

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0680-1